Wednesday, April 20, 2011

I've been in the customer service **cough** people pleasing business way too long...

It's gotten in my head way too much and I think I just might need another vacation. I'm starting to get loopy. ("Just starting?" some of you are thinking...)

What do you get when you mix being a pastor, a pastor's wife, and a job coach working for a re-employment firm that is absolutely second to none in customer service? Well, I will tell you this, if you do it for any amount of time successfully you are, as a general rule, positive in your communication. You may not "feel" it all the time, and some days may be a huge challenge, but you learn how to be a positive communicator.

Monday I realized how programmed on "auto-pilot" I just might be when it comes to this.

I had a few personal items on my agenda Monday when getting back from the cruise. One was confirming a dentist appointment, the other making a call to my gynecologist's office to schedule my yearly exam. I called and spoke with the receptionist giving her all of my information and she scheduled an appointment for me and then confirmed the date. Then without even THINKING about it (I assure you I wasn't really thinking!) I said to her, "Oh wonderful! I'm looking forward to it. See you then! Have a most blessed day. Goodbye."

I hung up the phone and was suddenly startled by realizing what I just said. Did I just tell the receptionist at the GYN office that I was looking forward to my exam? Yes.. What in the world was I thinking? I wasn't. I was just on autopilot, like I am for a lot of my conversations. The ministry, and the business world, require excellent manners even when others don't treat you the same. I've been well trained to speak with well controlled, positive responses even when people (customers or church people) don't always treat me kindly. I guess it seeped out in a weird way this week to say the least. There are some meetings I don't have to tell people I'm looking forward to. It's okay to not get excited over a pap smear.